THE CONGREGATION OF
JESUS AND MARY
Claudine’s ideal was ideal was to make God known and loved by means of
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION in all social milieux. This is ideal remains the aim of the
Congregation with the preference, inherited from the Foundress for the young and
among the poor.
What
kind of women did she wish to form in her work with the Young?
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Women of
faith in God, themselves and others who would live their lives in the light
of Faith.
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Women, capable
o being good wives and mothers, and of creating happy homes.
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Women, whose
very presence anywhere would exude goodness and touch other lives.
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Women capable
of earning a living by their honest ways.
What
did she desire of her Religious and their lay Collaborators?
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To be a living witness
in their own lives……… of the values they teach.
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To be
completely given to the young and without partiality be real mothers to
them.
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To have a foresight
and thoroughness in preparing and carrying out their duties.
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To be courteous,
but without any affectation, in their manner, tone of voice, deportment and
behaviour.
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To be clean
and orderly in their work and in their appearance.
What
was her pedagogy?
It was a system:
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of prevention that foresees and forestalls faults; giving guidance at the opportune
time …..there is a greater delicacy
of love implied in removing obstacles than merely healing wounds.
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of attention the individual stressing the dignity of each person.
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of participation ad collaboration
because of love cannot develop except in a united school community.
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of giving a practical formation enabling the young while living
with the preset, to prepare for the future.
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of social formation in the ability to take their place in society
with confidence.
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a pedagogy based on simplicity and a family spirit.
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a stimulant pedagogy giving each one the taste for going beyond
self :for making a reality of the dream which
God has for children.
Hers was a PEDAGOGY OF LOVE. A love that she drew from the Heart of Jesus
pierced on the cross for the salvation of all people. Different social
structures and environment require new forms of presence and make new demands on
our creativity; but today as in the times of Claudine Thevenet, the work of
EDUCATION IN LOVE remains the best reform we can offer. The finest methods
effect nothing without love.
